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gcrank1
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# Posted: 25 Dec 2020 11:59am - Edited by: gcrank1
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Ive lived in a city, in the 'burb, big town and small town....
But I grew up in the country, a simple little 120ac 'sand county' farm (see Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac, we were maybe about 10mi. and across the Wisconsin River from his 'shack') that my dad bought from the family that had homesteaded it. I was 7yrs old that summer and started my roamin' and ramblin' through the woods and fields wearing a fur cap my mom made from an old fur wrap and carrying my Davy Crockett BBgun. Id been influenced by Fess Parker as Davy Crockett then greatly confused when Fess Parker morphed into Daniel Boone.....but the 'character' was the same so I played my part in the 'wild'.
Somewhere thereafter I read H.D.Thoreau's Walden, and devoured 'outdoor' magazines, then later discovered 'Nessmuk' (George W. Sears) and Horace Kephart, all still good 'reads'.
I made bush shanty lean to's, then scrounged an old piece of heavy army surplus canvas and my 'shelters' became much more water resistant, if not really waterproof. And dreamed of cabins.....
Fast forward to about 1978-79 the old 1897 barn on the farm was too rough to fix and starting to go. I tore it down and saved as much of the the beams and boards as I could and stashed it all in my dad's big pole building. In mid-year of 1983, at age 30, I found myself unemployed (I think there was a recession?) and my mom said,"why dont you build a cabin in the woods with the barn wood?". I thought about that for a second and a half and said yeah. Im sure my dad liked the idea of getting the lumber out of HIS shed.
So, with pictures in my head transferred to sketches a plan developed; the money was tight (isnt it always) so it was maximize the barn wood and minimize buying.
We started building. Clear the site, put down silo blocks level and squared up and build a good deck 12x24. The plan changed as we went after that, ended up being 12x24 with a 12x12 loft, Swiss chalet style on the 'long side'. Offgrid, dry, 432sq.ft., basically 3 12x12 living spaces, open concept, barn beams exposed, insulated, pine boxcar siding interior and vertical barnboard exterior. ALL hand built with hand tools by mostly my wife and me with some very occasional help from a couple of friends. It was 'more than my dad expected' on HIS land. But it was fine with Mom.
I had been tramping that woods since age 7 and we continued in that for decades. My dad died Christmas Eve, 2016. The farm 'estate' had become too expensive for me to buy out the siblings and it was sold in 2018. The new owner graciously gave us 2 years to 'transition out of the cabin' so in early Sept of this year 2020 I turned the key over to him.
That cabin, 37yrs on, is still straight, square, solid and tight; we done good! Dad is gone but my cabin is still there and the new owner plans to keep it there.
In that 37 years we aged a bit....and our little 940Sq.ft.,100+yr old house (remodeled very small schoolhouse) bought about 1987 is in the country with fine neighbors that let us tramp their fields and forests.
It is on grid, but still 'cottage/cabin' size, so what need do we really have with a cabin?
But knowing our hill cabin was going to be 'gone' we had been looking, and we closed on a 9+ac property, mixed woods and meadow, c/w a rough sawmill slab 16x24 'hunting cabin, offgrid/dry last Aug 1. Since then we cleaned the property up (he had been a junk collector), fixed things up (he had also been a hack) and 'all systems work'. I just stayed overnight last Tue/Wed, slipped into the simple cabin livin' seamlessly, and get to tramp MY own woods and meadow.
The Call of the Wild is still in me and Im still doing it at 67. The Lord has blessed me beyond my dreams and Life is Good!
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 25 Dec 2020 12:16pm
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Great story gcrank!
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BobW
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# Posted: 25 Dec 2020 01:32pm
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Gcrank
I hope you have many more years of enjoyment at your new location.
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Nobadays
Member
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# Posted: 26 Dec 2020 09:39am
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Great read! Have you posted pictures of your new place? Would love to see it!
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Aklogcabin
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# Posted: 26 Dec 2020 10:10am
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gcrank1 , nice story. I’m glad for you and your wife. May the Good Lord continue to watch over you and your family.
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paulz
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2020 11:40am
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Great story. And yeah, we need pictures too.
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DaveBell
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2020 11:44am
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Quoting: gcrank1 a simple little 120ac 'sand county' farm
Quoting: gcrank1 The farm 'estate' had become too expensive for me to buy out the siblings and it was sold in 2018.
Could you have kept 20 acres and sold the other 100?
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Alaskajohn
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2020 01:15pm
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Super story! I know it must have been heartbreaking to hand over those keys. I think all of us posting on this thread have that call of the wild in us or we wouldn’t be here!
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2020 03:29pm - Edited by: gcrank1
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Dave, the county it is in has a 35+ac requirement for a livable structure. That is One. Even though the cabin is off-grid/dry it is considered 'livable' because you could prepare food and sleep in it.
The same 37.5ac chunk of land the cabin is on also has the 'farmstead' buildings & house, some fields and the 8ish ac woods the cabin is in. The 120ac total was sold off in chunks and this 37.5 was the last to go.
The cabin was listed on the property tax as a 'sheep shed' but was totally unpermitted. With that last chunk and the farm buildings on 'their' 35ac would have left me with only 2.5ac, 32.5ac short.
Now granted, I could have maybe bought that needed acres to comply but that ag. estate property sold for $3000+ per ac! Even if I could have convinced a neighbor to sell me that adjoining 32.5ac at $3K per there is no way I could have afforded the $97,500 after buying the 2.5 from the estate for $3K+ per just to keep my cabin. The numbers just didnt/couldnt work.
This new property does suit us better, my wife gets her woods, I get my meadow and even though the cabin isnt as well built it is comparable square footage and good enough. We have better/easier access, no hill to climb and no loft, which at our age was little used wasted space. And I got a solar system to play with 
All for well less than half of what the other calculated out to be.
The other part that I am learning yet is that this new place is allowing me to not dwell on the loss of the family farm and the folks, etc; I can 'move on' better now that Im not still going back there.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2020 03:54pm - Edited by: toyota_mdt_tech
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Quoting: gcrank1 This new property does suit us better, my wife gets her woods, I get my meadow...
gcrank1, the old saying goes, "you always do a better job the second time around"
Barely even missed a beat, right from one, into another. Great deal.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 31 Dec 2020 08:07pm
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Today, Dec.31, 2020 was to be low 20'sF, clear to partly cloudy and we just had a 6" snow Tues/Wed. It was a good excuse to run up to Da-9 and see what kind of snowplow berm gets piled into my driveway and if I can bust through to make the 320ish' to the cabin or not.
Not, it was a hardpack foot at the road tapering in to the soft 6". My old farm grain shovel was the ticket (dont try this with those wimpy household shovels they sell now!). A big 4wd truck stops, its one of my neighbors I had not yet met. He says," You look too old to be workin that hard"; we laugh and talk, next thing he has me jump in and he busts trail for me all the way in/out. Good thing, I still had trouble getting my 2wd suv with street tires all the way in, but did it.
What a great day to be there! (solo again), 22*, clear sky, sunny, no wind to speak of, quiet....stove ran well again and I still had some coffee there to brew.
I puttered, hunted the troublesome Red Squirrel, did a walkabout checking for deer sign and in general just totally enjoyed it.
I cant remember the last time I did a winter cabin trip, we kinda got away from it as the years went by. It was well worth the effort and conditions nigh on perfect.
I left for home at 4:15, sunset to be 4:28; the 45min drive home was in good light after sunset.
What a great way to spend The Last Day of 2020!
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 31 Jan 2021 07:46pm - Edited by: gcrank1
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Yesterday morning, one month on (Jan 30, '21) my wife says,"can we go to the cabin?". Now I had been there in between my last report here but she had not, and we had a 'significant' snow storm predicted. So off we went .
We got there about 10:45am, there had been a couple more inches of snow, some settling, but the track in looked decent so I gave it a go; did ok until near the cabin and found a small drift crusted over and broke traction. Stuck.
We hauled a bit of stuff to the cabin, outside said 34*f, turned on the lp tank and stepped inside to that dead cold of 26*. The new 30k lp infrared wall heater fired right up, sweet that! This time I had decided to just run the lp, no wood stove, and see what happens.
Then back out to shovel around the car (2wd suv, well worn street tires, duh) and clear a 'pad' to jack it in short Y turns to point back out. That done back in to find it up to 42* and another 1/2 hr we had 58*. Even so I turned on the old blue flame 18K unit so we had 48K of lp 'furnace' on either side of the 16x24 kickin out btu's . In two hours Total we had it up to 74* so I turned the blue flame off. I should have started both to begin with, now I know. This trial did at least as well as getting the wood stove going right after the 30K lp, I think better and no messing about.
It was a nice day, hovered around that 34* outside, little wind, mostly overcast, but not bitter and a winter walk around the perimeter of the 9 ac. in the crusty snow was good. That kind of snow that holds you just until you start to get your weight on it and breaks through. I found if I kept my weight to the ball of the foot in my Steiger Muks it worked better step to step, kinda 'toe in the hole first' method.
Joyce mostly stayed inside or close out with the dog (a Sheba Inu that loves the snow), she needs a knee replacement and this was a bit too much, but we both had a great time enjoying being at the place.
We decided to leave about 4pm, the trail out was now my track in and we were doing good until the last 100 feet; I was a bit to the side of the gravel, the snow crust caught the right front tire and sucked me off to the right. Stuck. I pulled the old grain shovel back out, cleared around the tires again and oozed my way left onto the track in the gravel again and we were off.
Safe home before dark well pleased with the day.
And true enough, the snow came, another 5" for sure, sorta half wet. I KNOW we are snowed -out now!
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Aklogcabin
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# Posted: 1 Feb 2021 09:34am
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Thanks for the nice story. I enjoy hearing about folks adventures to their cabins. Pray you and your wife have a great year and many cabin days.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 1 Feb 2021 12:52pm
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Thanx Aklc, as interesting and useful as the planning, construction, solar, etc stuff on this site is to me the stories are the frosting on the cake.
This winter is teaching me, or reminding me, to enjoy the place since I cant work on stuff outside and am not set up to work on much inside. Its kind of a forced relaxation? Now there's an oxymoron!
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